Forever GI Bill FAQs

The new regulation states that any quarter that begins on or after August 1, 2018 will be using the new BAH rates put in place by the VA. This is expected to begin with DePaul's Fall 2018 quarter the begins September 5, 2018.
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VA interprets this statute to include the physical attendance at any location a student's program may take them.

Actual campus locations of the school where the student is taking classes; for example, the school's science center, humanities building, or athletic center may be in a different zip code associated with the facility code listed on the enrollment certification.

Terms spent in a study abroad program are not located at the certified facility code location.

Any internship, externship, practicum, or student teaching experiences may also be in a zip code location other than the one associated with zip code associated with the facility code listed on the enrollment certification.

Unfortunately at this time, the VA is not giving schools the access to the BAH calculations they will be computing and determining so we are not sure what the various new BAH rates might look like here at DePaul.
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DePaul will be required to report the zip code for each class a student is taking which will include the zip codes for internship locations, practicums, student teaching locations, etc. If a majority of your course load is held at a location that is not the Loop Campus or the Lincoln Park campus, your BAH rate may change moving forward.
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If you are student teaching for the quarter and the student teaching location is not in the Loop or Lincoln Park Campus zip code, we will be required to report the zip code of your student teaching location to the VA, which could change your BAH rate for that quarter.

This same example applies for students that are doing an internship. We will be required to report the zip code for the physical internship location which could change your BAH rate for that quarter.
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In the past, students that were taking at least one class on campus and the rest online were considered residential students and received the full time BAH rates for that quarter. Now, if a majority of your classes are meeting online and you are only in one class that meets on campus, you will be receiving the BAH rate for online students which in the past could be half the full time BAH rate.
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Students who are taking all of their classes on the Loop or Lincoln Park campus should not be impacted, however, the VA still has not posted the any of the BAH rates for the 2018/2019 academic year so we are unsure what the rates are currently set at.
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